WSU, UI to host program on pollinators

Ticket costs will purchase 'bee hotels' to house live insects

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WSU, UI to host program on pollinators

Jessica Fung, a graduate student at the University of Idaho, says she hopes the workshop will affect the participants positively by being able to bring something to take home and put in their backyard Tuesday afternoon in Moscow.

JACOB BERTRAM | THE DAILY EVERGREEN

Jessica Fung, a graduate student at the University of Idaho, says she hopes the workshop will affect the participants positively by being able to bring something to take home and put in their backyard Tuesday afternoon in Moscow.

JACOB BERTRAM | THE DAILY EVERGREEN

JACOB BERTRAM | THE DAILY EVERGREEN

Jessica Fung, a graduate student at the University of Idaho, says she hopes the workshop will affect the participants positively by being able to bring something to take home and put in their backyard Tuesday afternoon in Moscow.

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The entomology departments of WSU and University of Idaho will team up together to host a family-friendly workshop about pollinators on the Palouse.

The workshop will take place 2-4 p.m. Saturday at the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute in Moscow.

Jessica Fung, graduate student at the University of Idaho, said she is excited to run this program with the WSU entomology department to raise awareness of pollinators in the Palouse.

“It’s pretty much a workshop to partly fundraise for our club and partly raise awareness,” she said.

Fung said the workshop will have two presentations. The first one will be about general pollination in the Palouse.

The other presentation will be about what the departments are doing and will address solitary bees, she said.

“A majority of the species that you see here in the Palouse are native and solitary,” she said. “They’re solitary bees that don’t form these hives that we hear about in the media, in regards to honeybees.”

Abigail Hayes, WSU outreach coordinator for the entomology department, said the partnership is a fundraising event to help the University of Idaho’s entomology program get back on its feet.

“There’s two entomology departments eight miles from each other. It would be ridiculous not to collaborate,” Hayes said. “For the good of the Palouse, we should collaborate. It would make sense.”

Fung said the tickets are limited, and the cost to attend is $30. Each ticket will pay for a bee hotel, which is a structure for bees to rest.

She said they can accommodate for a maximum of 30 groups of five.

Hayes said the focus of the event is to try to simplify the reasons why people think the honeybees are in trouble and provide some insight on what is happening.

“There’s a lot of focus on honeybees by the public,” she said. “They think ‘the honeybees are in trouble’ and that ‘we need to save them.’ ”

Nick Morris, graduate student at the University of Idaho, said the different departments have previously collaborated on programs before and have also conducted events within their respected departments.

“The departments like to do a lot of collaborations together, like when there are new faculty candidates,” he said.

Hayes said if this event is successful, the department hopes to host more pollinator and bee workshops, similar to the one tomorrow, and try to educate people.

“I do think that in the future there will be more pollination and bee hotel workshops on the Palouse,” she said.